Preschool Graduation!

What an amazing year it has been for Lila in preschool!  I didn't know what to expect from 4 year old preschool, I kind of thought it would be more of the same from 3 year old preschool, but I was wrong.  Lila did happen to be in the blue room again with the same teachers, Mrs. O'Connell & Mrs. Rosencrants, but her days looked different this year.  She was in a two day program last year, but this year she jumped to a three day schedule with an extended class day on Wednesdays. Other than the different schedule the biggest change was her development.  I know, I know, she is a year older so she is further along, but to really see the development in the papers she brought home and the workbooks she started at the beginning of the year and finished at the end...it was pretty awesome!  I definitely think 3 year preschool was educational, but almost more from a social skills standpoint.  The 4 year old curriculum was heavily geared towards writing, math, and the beginning of reading!

Lila had a great year in the blue room and was super excited for her last day!  This year was different, she will go back to the same school, but it won't be for preschool, rather Kindergarten!  So, this particular "graduation" was special...she is truly moving on!

The graduation begins with the kids performing a few songs for the parents!  Each of the songs were so cute and all of the kids did a great job performing in front of the parents staring back at them!

"Y-E-L-L-O-W spells Yellow!"

To see a video of the kids singing "Goodbye" click here.  

After the performances each of the children were called up to the front of the room to accept their certificate and a book given to them by their teachers as a gift for finishing the year.  As each child approached the front the teachers told a small tidbit about the child and they took a bow or curtsied!

Being presented with her certificate!

Once each child was presented with their certificate and gift it was time for pictures!  Lila had a group of girls that she was thick as thieves with!  It was hard for these girls to let each other go as they are all going to different schools next year, one of the saddest things about growing up!

Lila & her besties!  (Sofie, Lila, Lauren, Maya & Jorja)

Lila & Mrs. Rosencrants

Lila & Mrs. O'Connell

Attempting a class photo!

After her graduation we had a special celebratory lunch and then a quick stop at Orange Leaf to top it off with a sweet treat!  As I look at these pictures from this special day I can't help but feel unbelievably proud of our little girl!  She is growing into a smart, funny, and caring little girl.  While it is unbelievable to think that she will be going into Kindergarten, we are so excited for her future and know that she is ready to conquer school with everything she has!

A sweet treat!

In the books...

How is it possible that a whole year has sailed by in regards to education?  I remember sitting at home a year ago in June talking with Mike about all of the change that was on the horizon.  Not only were we going to be sending Lila off to her first year of preschool, but Mike was getting ready to take the leap back into learning, too.  I remember thinking to myself..."am I ready for all of this?!"  I wasn't so sure at the time, but "poof!" a year has gone by and Mike has started another fall semester at Kirkwood and Lila has started her second year of preschool at All Saints!  We are in the midst of new notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons and such and are ready to meet another year with a lot less anxiety! 

Not only has Mike found his footing as a college student and Lila as a preschool student, but we have found our rhythm as a family.  A family that has a Daddy who works hard while Mom and Lila are off to their daily tasks, but also finds himself staying up late studying to accommodate the balance of student life and family life.  A family that has a little girl who has grown up right before our eyes and is loving learning! 

Mike started back full time on the 19th and Lila officially started her first full day yesterday, the 30th.  Here is to another successful school year for the Eddins students!

First day of preschool picture outside of All Saints

The End or Just the Beginning?!

You may remember a few posts about Lila going off to preschool.  First there was the post about picking the best option for her and our family - click here.  And then there was the post about her actually taking that huge first step and becoming a preschooler - click here.  It honestly feels like I just sat down and wrote both of those posts...however, I am here documenting her last day of her first year of preschool.  Talk about time flying!!!!

 

August 2012 - May 2013

 

To say we are happy with her preschool is an understatement.  There have been so many moments in her short life that I have worried, but I can't tell you how blessed I (we) feel that in the case of her in-home daycare and, now, her preschool/childcare, we are beyond comfortable with the care that Lila is receiving when we aren't with her during the day. 

 

Every time we get an invitation to attend an event at All Saints I get a twinge of excitement.  They are so good about involving the parents and the other neat things is...the parents are so happily involved!  Today was no exception as we all gathered to watch our little ones receive their preschool certificates for their completed year! 

 

Welcome to the Blue Room!

 

We walked into the room where the kiddos were all lined up ready to welcome us and sing us a song about how wonderful All Saints Preschool is! 

 



Happy to see her Mom & Dad!

Before the song, Mrs. O'Connell said a few words...thanking us parents for giving them the gift of teaching our children.  While that sounds like what every preschool teacher should say to the parents of the children, it was sincere, it was even said through some tears. 

Proud girl!

Our performer!

Click Here to see their cute song!

 

After they sang their song the kids were invited to sit on the rug while each one was called up to the front of the room.  The teachers had asked the kids a few questions: 1) What was your favorite thing about preschool?  2) What are you going to miss?  3) What are you going to do this summer.  They read each of the children's answers and then presented them with a brand new book and a certificate stating they had completed a successful year of preschool!  Finishing up with each kid getting a hug from both of their teachers!

 



Waiting patiently to hear her name!

Finally it was Lila's turn!  She trotted right up to the front of the room while Mrs. O'Connell read the answers to her questions.  Lila's favorite thing about preschool was playing with play-doh and making cupcakes!  She is going to miss playing with her friends the most!  And this summer she is going to play with Connie!

A hug for Mrs. Rosencrants

A hug for Mrs. O'Connell

 

 

Our preschooler with her amazing teachers!

Mike and I both left the school today with our hearts bursting with pride!  What a fantastic day!  We couldn't have been more proud of our little girl and all she has accomplished during her first year of "school!"  As you can tell from the picture at the very beginning of this post, she has grown up a lot since August of last year.  Beyond the physical growth, and just as importantly, she has also grown emotionally and mentally and it has been so much fun to watch!

As parents, it is bittersweet for our children to spread their wings!  There is the anxiety that riddled us as we anticipated her first days and weeks at a new school, yet there is the pride that swelled in us today, and many days during her first year, as we watch her become more and more independent!

Celebrating a very special day!

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Sock Hop!

This Friday found us heading to Lila's school for a Sock Hop!  We met up with Jen, Celia & Ruby so the girls could all boogie down together!!!  It had been several weeks since the girls had seen each other, so they couldn't have been more excited!!!



All smiles!

We dusted off Lila's Pink Lady costume from Halloween two years ago, I was praying that we could still make it work!  Thankfully the only part of the costume that really had a "size" was her jacket.  It was a bit short, specifically in the arms, but we made it work! 

Smooch!



The Pink Ladies!

The gym was full of kids, and parents, dressed up in their best 50's attire!  It was too cute!  The kids were loving the music from the DJ and the parents were able to let them run off and have fun or join in on the dancing, too!

The gym starting to fill up

Taking it all in...

 

The girls all found their friends and then you could see them most often holding hands making their way around the gym.  They would stop and dance or stop to chat with other friends, but mostly arm in arm scooping the loop!

 

Lila & Ruby with good friends Hannah and Abilene

Enjoying a very large cotton candy!

Among some of the evening activities they called each age/grade up to the stage to have their picture taken!  There weren't a lot of 3 year olds there that evening, but those that were there were able to get a picture taken together!  Pretty cute!

Preschool 3 year olds!

One of the cutest parts of the night was wacthing the kids do the Chicken Dance.  Now, I have to admit, I can't stand that song, but when you have a room full of kids doing it, it made the song bearable!

The Chicken Dance

We got home from the Sock Hop with a tired little girl.  However, she had enough energy to open a special gift from her cousins! The girls had been in Hawaii for two weeks and they both picked out a gift to bring back for Lila.  While Lila of course loved the gifts, I melted over the sweet card that they made that was taped to the outside of the gift bag!

Thanks Cel & Ru for my great gifts!
Merissa the Mermaid & Hula the Bear

The rest of our weekend has been really low-key!  We went to Mike's grandparents last night to spend some time with them and have dinner.  Elaine had found an Electro Art (Lite Brite) toy from when Mike's Mom was a kid!  We spent a lot of time creating light pictures!  That particular toy was 50 years old and still worked like a charm!  Too much fun!

Carousel horse

Lila also enjoyed crawling up on Grandma's lap to look at photo albums of her Daddy and Aunt Maria they were little, just like her!

Grandma & Lila

This year we don't have big plans for the Super Bowl, we will just watch it at home with some munchies, hopefully snuggled in with a fire in the fireplace!  Considering the Detroit Lions aren't playing in the game this year, the Eddins household will be rooting for the Ravens!  They are Lila's favorite because they are purple!  Eh, good enough for me!

A Christmas Star

There are many moments as a parent that you marvel at your child!  I think Mike would agree when I say that generally we are in complete awe of this little girl that we are so blessed to call ours!  She never ceases to amaze us in situations where thing could go less than spectacular! 

 

 

This weekend we attended Lila's very first stage performance, it was her preschool holiday concert!  I am truly not sure who was more excited, Mommy & Daddy or Lila herself?!  Now, most of you know that Lila is quite the performer, but I will be honest, I had my hesitations.  Asking a 3 year old to go out on stage and perform with a room full of parents looking back at you is quite the task!  Yet Lila seemed to have no fear, so I wasn't going to let in that there should be any reason to have any fear, we acted like it was absolutely no big deal, in fact we kept telling her how exciting it was to sing her songs for everyone.  Whether it is that she is just a born performer or that we actually did help by boosting her confidence, whatever it was, she did FABULOUS!

 

See for yourself!

 

Video #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhTRSWGQHs&feature=youtu.be - This video is of Lila's preschool class singing two songs: Nine Little Angels and Where is Santa?! 

 

Video #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju40Lsb6O28&feature=youtu.be - This video is of the whole preschool singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas as the finale of the program!

 

Three year old preschoolers performance
Lila is first row, 3rd in from the right.

 

Some of Lila's greatest fans!

 

BIG smiles!
Love this photo even though it is terrible quality

 

All done and couldn't be more proud of herself!

 

As a parent my heart was bursting with pride!  I couldn't believe how grown-up she was on that stage!  She has grown so much this year, especially with the addition of preschool.  At three years old, she definitely has her moments of wanting things her way, but her willingness to be open-minded about the big things have really blown us away! 

 

Lila was lucky enough to have quite the cheering section.  Grandpa and Grandma Eddins, Jason, Jen, Celia and Ruby, Dad, Laura, Carson and Cade all came to see the little performer make her big debut!  They were all just as impressed with how well she did as we were!

 

Later that afternoon we all got back together to attend the Holiday Pops at the Paramount Theatre.  The theatre has made quite the comeback from the 2008 flood that destroyed the inside. 



 

Christmas decor @ the Paramount



Hmmm...what does the program have to say?!

 

The performance was fantastic!  And you can imagine Lila's excitement when they closed the show with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," the exact same song that they closed their preschool show with earlier!  She was bright eyed and sang along as if she should have been a part of the chorale!

 

After the show we took our tired little girl home and I got to work on wrapping more presents.  All in all, it was a Christmas-y kind of day, one that reminds us all of what this time of the year is all about!



We are starting to run out of room!

Time Away

It has only taken me 8 years in the working world and 3 years of being a Mom to finally take some time off that actually included being at home!  We had it planned to go to the cabin in Guttenberg for a long weekend and it worked out that it was the weekend before Mike's week off between summer classes and his fall semester.  So, it was decided that I would take a few extra days after we got back to spend some time together, just the three of us!

We headed to the cabin on Thursday afternoon and arrived to an overcast day, but still had good enough weather that we could get some jumping in on the trampoline!  There are so many fun things to do at the cabin, but the trampoline ranks right up there with one of the most fun!  We grilled dinner and all settled in for the evening, watching some of the Olympic games on TV and enjoying each other's company!





We weren't going to have any success keeping the kids at bay on Friday!  They were ready to go for a boat ride!  After a nice relaxing morning we hopped on the boat for a ride to McGregor and some shopping at Paper Moon.  Grandpa gave each of the girls $20.00 to spend on a souvenier, boy was it a hard decision!!!  Lila settled on an adorable bracelet with a boat charm on it (how ironic) and a porcupine that lights up that she affectionately named, "Melissa."  My Grandma and both of my great aunts were there for awhile to visit.  Grandma celebrated her birthday on Monday, so it was nice to see her and sing 'Happy Birthday' to her before the big day!  Laura made a delicious meal for dinner, it was a replica of a buffalo chicken wrap that we all love from a restaurant in Iowa City called Atlas.  YUM!!!  It was then off to bed as we were bound and determined to spend more time on the water on Saturday!

Saturday morning we woke up and didn't waste much time putting our life jackets on and heading out!  It also didn't take us long to realize it was a bit chilly that morning!  The breeze on the boat was cold and so was the water, but it didn't stop everyone from doing the first round of skiing and tubing for the day!

If you will recall, Lila tubed a few weeks ago when we were up at the cabin and it didn't end all that smoothly, so she was a bit apprehensive about tubing...that is until she saw Celia and Jason go.  After that we couldn't get her off of it!  A new tube was purchased that allows you to literally sit on it like you would a chair and it was a hit with everyone! 

Back on the saddle!

Woo hoo!!!

Lila couldn't love her cousins more that she does and she proudly walks around talking about "her cousins!"  They all get along so well and the bigger girls are so sweet and patient with our littler girl that it melts my heart!

Loving her time with her cousin!

We pulled back in to the cabin in time for lunch!  The guys then decided it was time to finish the swing set they started last year.  There wasn't much left to complete, but there was still some work to be done, so they got after it.  Once the swing set was complete, it was time for a few games of volleyball.  The whole family got involved!  It was so much fun!  I am proud to say that the team Mike and I were on was the winning team, both times! 

After the games it was back out on the water for a little while so everyone could get some more skiing and tubing in!  Once again, Lila couldn't be held down, she was back out on the tube and was begging for more!!!

Celia and Ruby are just beginning to learn how to water ski and they have the neatest ski trainer!  It is similar to a tube, but it has holes in it for their feet so they can stand up in it as if they were skiing on double skis.  Then you can see in the picture that an adult actually holds the other end of the device, much like you would a ski rope, so that way if needed they can let go and it won't drag the child down quickly, it will allow them to float.  It was the neatest thing!  It sure as heck beat trying time after time on two skis immediately, when I was a kid that was hard work and it was hard to stay motivated after drinking gallons of river water each time!

Celia stood right up!  She is ready for the next level!

This was a breeze for Ruby!

After we finished up on the water it was back to the cabin where the kids continued playing and everyone began making dinner.  Another delicious meal was served and we were thoroughly stuffed! 

Action shot!

Dinner was followed up by a mean karaoke show put on by Celia, Ruby & Lila.  We did have a bit of a problem...all the girls wanted so badly to participate that only two of the microphones actually ran through the speaker on the karaoke machine, no one was all that happy to use one of the unplugged mics.  I sense a girl band in their future!



"Here's my number, so call me maybe!"

On Sunday we loaded up the family roadster and headed back home.  We had such a nice time up at the cabin with everyone!  It was some much needed, much welcomed family time together at the cabin!

Monday and Tuesday were devoted to just the three of us and I couldn't have been more excited for that time!  We woke up on Monday and Mike headed out to Kirkwood to get all his books for class while Lila and I got cleaned up.  We met up with Mike to take Lila to her very first movie in the theater!  We took her to see the movie, "Brave!"  It was so cute!  Lila likes Princess Merida because she has curly hair, "just like me, Mom!"  How sweet! 

Ready for the movie to start!

Tuesday morning came and we took Lila to her very first dentist appointment.  She had been to one of my appointments before just to observe what was going on, but she had never sat in the chair completely alone and had her teeth cleaned.  I assumed she would do okay, but you never really do know until you are actually faced with the situation.  My Aunt Beth is the hygenist, so we knew that was going to at least make things a bit more comfortable!  We are so happy to report that Lila went through her dentist visit like a champ!  She opened when asked, she bit down when asked, she let the doctor come in and count her teeth, it was quite remarkable!  We were so proud!

Lookin' good!

After our dentist appointment we went to the store to get all of Lila's school supplies.  It was almost surreal walking down the aisle grabbing crayons, glue sticks and kleenex that she will soon take into her classroom.  How did this happen?  How is she so big?!  It is wild! 

After our errands in town we decided to head to Iowa City to get some new Hawkeye gear!  You know, Hawkeye football starts in 17 days!  Not that anyone in this house is counting!  We seemed to be really successful at Scheels!  Lila made out with some new fancy shades, a new hat, a water bottle and a skirt!  She thought she was big stuff with all her Herky gear!  There was a very large Herky in the store that she kept saying, "hi" to and "let's go Hawks!"  She cracks us up!

One of the last things on her list for this fall was a new pair of tennis shoes.  I swear her feet haven't grown in quite some time and now all of the sudden none of her shoes fit her anymore.  She is practically falling off the back of her flip flops, I am kind of ashamed!  She helped pick out her brand new tennies and she couldn't be more proud of them!  They are her favorite color afterall!



As pink as it gets!

This time away was so good for me.  I have told Mike a handful of times how I need to be sure to allow myself to take more time off just because.  I don't have to take time off just because we have a trip planned.  In fact, I can't remember a time that I took off and actually felt rested like I did this week. 

It was so sweet...this morning when Lila woke up and asked if she was going to Connie's I told her that she was and she looked up and me and said, "I am going to miss you, Mom!"  Could it get any sweeter than that?!  I don't believe that it can!  I can't believe how fast our little girl is growing up.  Next week she starts preschool and I am facing it with such mixed emotions!  I know she is ready, but it is a major step in a lifetime of learning and in a way it means she isn't my "baby" anymore.  I am so happy that we took a break and spent this time enjoying each other before we embark on this next phase for our family!